So, Tom’s trying to build a home audio setup with quality levels closer to ‘Audiophile-level’ than to ‘Consumer-level’. But the problem with audiophile equipment is that the cost typically ranges from $A-Lot to $More-Than-You’ll-Ever-Make. But there is a certain amount of finesse one can leverage to get quality equipment at reasonable prices. First, and most importantly, is that the best amps are the ones from the 60’s and 70’s. These old tube amps deliver what is arguably the richest sound quality, and at a fairly reasonable price…if you can find them.

Tom purchased an old tube amp from the late 60’s off of eBay and was able to get some Sony speakers for free. He also got the crossovers necessary to deliver the right frequencies to each speaker. But there was an important part missing…boxes to put the speakers in. That’s where I joined the project. Our mission was to design and construct the boxes necessary to house the speakers and crossovers and somehow manage to keep them square and airtight. If they looked cool when we were done, that was a bonus.
Since this was Tom’s baby, I left most of the planning and decisions ultimately to him, interjecting mostly when I had thoughts I deemed significant or alternative viewpoints worth exploring. I’m generally regarded as the ‘idea guy,’ it seems, so I do what I can.

Since neither Tom nor I are carpenters by any stretch of the imagination, we went about things in the manner that seemed best to us. In some cases, that meant re-doing things in another manner later, after the “best” way turned out to not be so great. I won’t go into the details, but after about four days of afternoons in the shop, we had two airtight, mostly-square, 3-way speakers that sounded pretty good. Along the way, I decided to get Google SketchUp and draw out our designs (at least how I had pictured them) for reference. Below are the three iterations our box design went through.

I think both our box design and my SketchUp skills got better during the course of this project. This represents our eventual goal for the speakers. However, for the time being, function was our primary concern; we can make them look pretty later. Here’s what we came up with so far.

And here are some random pictures from our last day of construction, for your enjoyment/amusement.

At some point, hopefully Tom puts veneer on the boxes or stains them. I really like the look I came up with in the SketchUp drawings, but we’ll see if that comes to fruition. Until next time.

All content ?2006 Tony Magri

Posted by nitrogen on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am.